


Down the Street

by Missellaineous



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - High School, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, F/M, M/M, On Haitus, Secret Crush, indefinitely
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-02-27 09:14:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2687324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missellaineous/pseuds/Missellaineous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren crushes on the cute boy down the street, they become friends, and go to the same high school.</p><p>This is incredibly ordinary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the beginning, there was cuteness

**Author's Note:**

> I could not get this out of my head, so I wrote it. And then I wondered if other people would like it, so I posted it. I also have two other multi-chapter fics that are ongoing, so I'm not sure how often I'll update.
> 
> I don't know a lot about Japanese customs, so it might seem like a weird mix of Japanese and American stuff in here.

Eren had had a crush on the boy down the street for two years now.

It had been three years ago when a new family had moved into the house that had been empty for as long as he could remember. He remembered his parents talking about it during dinner one evening, Eren and Mikasa eating their food silently as they talked.

“There’s a new family moving into that house down the street, dear.”

“Oh, is that so?” Eren’s father replied distractedly, scooping himself another portion of mashed potatoes. “Can you pass the green beans, honey?”

His mother complied easily, continuing the conversation. “Here you go, love. Yes, I think their name is Ackerman.”

“Thank you, darling. That’s right. I remember hearing about it from Mr. Smith when I went out to get the paper this morning,” Grisha nodded.

“I think we should give them something as a little welcome-to-the-neighborhood gift. What do you say, pumpkin?”

“Wonderful idea, honey.”

“Good. I heard from Mrs. Smith that they have a kid Eren’s age. You’ll be alright taking it over to them, won’t you, sweetie?” This last question was directed to Eren himself. He looked up from his food and nodded. “Thank you, dear. Here, have another roll, you look skinny. I’ll prepare something tomorrow, and you can take it that evening.”

The next day he was sent over to the Ackerman’s with his mom’s popular pumpkin spice cake. He had knocked on the door, and a short kid with black hair styled in an undercut had answered. “What do you want?”

He had held out the cake. “My mom told me to bring this over. She said that you can give the pan back whenever.”

The kid had looked from him to the cake, back and forth, without a word. After a few minutes of awkward silence, he reached out and took the dessert from Eren. “Thanks.”

“We live over there,” Eren pointed at his home two houses down and across the street. The kid’s eyes followed the direction that Eren pointed in and nodded, not saying a word.

“’Kay. See ya later.” Eren left.

A few days later, the raven-haired boy had knocked on the door to their house, holding the empty pan, now clean. “Here,” he had shoved it towards Eren when he had opened the door.

He took it from the boy’s hands. “Thanks. Did you like the cake?” he asked, knowing his mom would want to know when he told her later.

“Yeah, it was good. Thanks.” The boy’s face didn’t show any emotion as he answered Eren.

He nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“Bye.” And just like that, the boy was gone.

 

 

 

The next time Eren had met him, at was two months later at the convenience store one street over from theirs.

He was there to grab a snack to eat while he studied, and had seen the other boy walk into the store from his place in front of the chips. He watched as the boy went straight to the bandages, grabbed a box, and headed to the counter.

“Hey,” he called out, not really sure why he did it.

The boy stopped and looked at him.

“What’s up?” he continued.

The boy held up the box of band aids.

“Are you hurt?”

The boy pointed to his right knee, which was scraped. It was still bleeding.

Eren frowned. “That looks bad. What happened?”

“I tripped.”

Eren was surprised that the boy answered at all. “You should get disinfectant for that. So it doesn’t get, you know, infected. One time, I got a cut on my arm that got infected, and it was sore and red and swollen for a couple days,” he babbled while the boy watched him with intense gray eyes. He eventually trailed off into silence.

The boy walked over to the medication and picked up a spray bottle of Neosporin. He peeked at Eren out of the corner of his eye, and Eren beamed at him.

“Are you busy right now?” Eren asked the boy.

He pointed to his knee.

“Besides that?”

The boy shook his head.

“Do you like popsicles?”

The boy shrugged and looked at his feet.

“I do. But my favorite flavor only comes as the kind you share. Would you share with me?” Eren asked nervously.

The boy looked at him for a moment without saying anything. “Okay.”

Eren grinned. “Great! Wait for me at the counter.” He hurriedly retrieved the popsicle and purchased it from the teenager manning the register. The boy had already purchased his goods, and waited for Eren with the plastic bag hanging from one of his hands.

They left and went to the park across the street to sit on one of the benches there.

Eren pulled out the popsicle and split it into two before handing both halves to the boy. “Hold my half for a minute and I’ll fix your knee for you.”

“You don’t have to do that,” the boy told him, taking it into his hand anyway.

“It’s fine. I get injured all the time, so I’m pretty good at putting on bandages. Here, give me your bag.”

The boy handed over the plastic bag and Eren pulled out the bandages and disinfectant, kneeling down in front of where the boy sat on the bench. He used the tissues his mom made him carry with him to wipe away the blood on the boy’s knee before he took the lid of the disinfectant.

He looked up to where the boy was watching him, licking at his half of the popsicle, Eren’s half dripping onto his hand. “This is gonna sting,” he warned him. The boy nodded.

He sprayed it onto the injury, and placed one of the band aids over the spot. He put the stuff back into the boy’s bag and sat down next to him. The boy handed him his popsicle. “Thanks,” he said.

“No problem,” Eren answered, getting to work on the quickly melting cold treat. “What’s your name?”

“Levi.”

“I’m Eren.”

 

 

 

After that, they started to spend more and more time together. Eren learned that despite his small stature, Levi was one year older than him. They went to separate middle schools, and Levi was extremely smart. Eren resented the time he could not spend with Levi. His friend Armin was the only one he could confide his feelings to, as Mikasa disliked him.

Once Levi had graduated from middle school, he was accepted into one of the best high schools in the district. Eren spent his last year of middle school studying constantly so he could go to same high school as Levi. His efforts were eventually rewarded, and he, Mikasa, and their friend Armin entered Trost High.

 

* * *

~~~~

“Hey! Levi!”Eren ran up to the raven-haired boy. He was panting from the effort of running in the stiff new uniform his mom had bought him over the break.

“What’s up?” Levi leaned on one leg, hands in his pockets.

“Let’s walk together, since we’re going to the same place.”

Levi shrugged. “Sure.”

Eren beamed at him and straightened up. They walked down the street and turned the corner. “Where’s your sister?” Levi asked Eren, since it was rare to see them apart.

“She left early because she’s class representative. I had to listen to her speech three times before she finally relaxed,” Eren whined.

Levi chuckled. “I’m sure it’s good.”

Eren sighed. “It is, but not good enough to listen to three times.”

“Four,” The other boy reminded him. “You’re going to hear it again at the entrance ceremony.”

He groaned. “Just kill me now.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Come on, brat. I don’t want to be late.”

“I’m only a year younger than you!” Eren sped up to keep up with Levi’s quick pace. “Hey, do you have any after school clubs, or do you want to walk home together?” he asked, slightly breathless.

Levi looked up at the sky. “Nah, I don’t have anything. Want to meet at the gate?”

“Yeah!” Eren’s steps grew bouncy and he felt a cheesy grin spread across his face.

“Cool.” They reached the school, and Eren wondered how time seemed to speed up whenever he spent time with the other boy. “Let’s go check what classes we’re in.”

They joined the crowd entering through the school gates and headed toward where the classes were posted.

“Levi!” a girl screeched at the same time a blur of a person tackled the raven-haired boy, causing him to stumble and almost fall.

“Get off, shitty glasses,” he grumbled in his grumpy cat voice.

“Hanji, you can’t just jump on people.” Eren turned and saw a tall blonde boy watching them from a few feet away. He was smiling despite the reproachful tone he had spoken with.

He turned back and saw a girl with a ponytail and glasses reluctantly release Levi from a bear hug. “But Erwin,” she whined. “I haven’t seen him all break!”

“You called every single day,” Levi said to her while he straightened his uniform. “Sometimes twice a day.”

“That’s because you would totally hole up in your room if we didn’t pull you out every now and then,” she retorted. “And besides, we’re in the same class this year, so you can’t avoid me.” She had a manic grin that never seemed to leave her face. Just then she spotted Eren, and somehow the grin grew even bigger. “Is this Eren?!” she squealed. She jumped forward and seized one of his hands in her own. “Hi, I’m Hanji! I’m one of Levi’s friends.”

“Hi, I’m Eren,” he replied with a smile. Levi had told him about the hyper brunette that had attached herself to him in middle school. He had also told Eren about the blonde boy that was friends with both of them and served as a kind of deterrent for Hanji’s most extreme tendencies.

Hanji hopped up and down. “Oh, Levi, you never told us how adorable he is! Can he come eat lunch with us?”

“That’s up to the brat.”

“I usually eat lunch with my friend Armin,” he told Hanji.

“He can come too!” she exclaimed excitedly. “It’ll be fun.”

“Okay,” he agreed easily.

“Yay!” she cheered.

“It’s almost time for the ceremony to start,” Erwin interrupted Hanji’s celebrating. “We better get going.”

“I’ll find you later, Eren!” Hanji gave him a hug before either Erwin or Levi could stop her, and bounced away.

Erwin smiled. “It was nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too," he replied.

Levi waved, and they were gone.

Eren sighed and headed toward where the entrance ceremony was held, hoping to be able to find Armin and Mikasa in the large group that was moving in the same direction. At least he had something to look forward to later.


	2. And thus they were high school students

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's some more stuff from the past in the beginning, then it continues from where the last one left off.

He turned over in his bed and stared up at the shadows on his ceiling. Moonlight spilled into his room through his second story window, turning everything in its wake some shade of blue. He raised his left hand upwards and saw that even his skin was dyed with the color. He turned his head, looking for the moon or stars, but he couldn’t see any through his window. He crawled out of his bed, grabbed something off of his nightstand, and opened the window. He carefully moved onto the bit of roof that stretched out underneath him, and made sure that he was steady in his perch before he let go of his window sill. He settled onto the slanted surface with his knees drawn up to his chest and returned his gaze to the sky, one hand clenched into a fist.

It was a cloudy night. The sky was made of grey and blue patched onto a canvas of pitch black. It was like there was a blanket covering the earth, hiding it from the rest of the universe. Isolating it. He couldn’t stop the pang of loneliness that made his chest ache. His hand tightened momentarily on the object he held, before relaxing open. He looked down at the ring nestled in his palm and smiled. The inside of his mouth tasted metallic and bitter.

He felt a breeze brush against his clothes and his hair. He looked up once more, and slowly crawled back through his window and onto his bed. He pulled the covers bundled at the bottom over him, burying himself in darkness. He was careful not to let any light in through the edges. He turned his face into his pillow and felt the sting that came with the pressure. He ignored it and pushed his face further into the cotton. For a few minutes, colors drew themselves onto the back of his eyelids, but they slowly left until all that remained was complete darkness. Eventually, without him realizing it, he slipped into calm, soothing oblivion.

Across the street and a few houses down, a boy close to his own age had also been looking out of his own window. His faced the opposite side of the night sky. He stared at the lone star shining in a gap between clouds for a few minutes, before smiling and closing his eyes. He pulled his blankets tighter around his shoulders and fell asleep thinking about the boy he had talked to that day. The boy with gray eyes.

 

* * *

 

Mikasa had become Eren’s sister when they were both eight years old. She had been one of his father’s patients at the hospital he worked at. They had met when Eren had gone up to visit him when he ran across a small girl with dark hair standing in the hallway on the third floor, alone. He didn’t hesitate to walk up and talk to her, despite the stiffness in her shoulders and the way she kept her face turned away from him.

“Are you lost?” he asked her.

She looked at him with obvious reluctance. When she didn’t reply, he spoke again.

“I know the way to the children’s ward. Would you like me to show you the way?” This time, he waited until she nodded before speaking again. “Just follow me. And pay attention to where we’re going. You should learn how to get back by yourself.” He began walking down the hallway, confident that she was directly behind him. He paused when he felt a slight tug on the back of his shirt. He looked back and saw the girl staring at the ground. He stared at her for a few moments to see if she was going to speak. She didn’t. He took the hand holding the bottom of his shirt into his own. He didn’t let go when he started walking again.

After that, they were firmly attached. Eren later found out that Mikasa had been in a car accident with her parents, and she was the sole survivor. For a few weeks afterwards she hadn’t spoken a word to anyone. She had been receiving therapy for it while she recovered from a head injury and a broken arm. Mikasa had developed a habit of roaming the hospital. She had been found lost on multiple occasions by nurses and doctors, but couldn’t be discouraged to quit. It was on one of these trips that Eren had found her and brought her back to where she belonged.

He began visiting her whenever he came to wait for his dad’s shift to end. His bright personality and honesty had pulled her out of her shell, and she started speaking again. The hospital had been unable to get in contact with any remaining family she may have had, so Eren’s father decided to adopt her into their family after some discussion with his wife. She moved into their home once she had been cleared to leave the hospital.

Eren had given Mikasa a red scarf on her birthday, just a week after she had become a part of their family. She still wore it every day, tying it around her hips when it was too hot to wear around her neck.

 

They became friends with Armin the summer after that, when Eren and Mikasa had both turned nine.

One day, Eren and Mikasa were playing at a public playground in their neighborhood. It wasn’t very busy in the evenings, so they usually had the equipment to themselves as they played.

Eren was running towards the swings, when he noticed the group out of the corner of his eye. He slowed to a stop. Mikasa, who had been following him, was startled by his sudden stop. She halted a few steps in front of him. He was already moving when she turned to see what was wrong. With a frown on her face, she looked in the direction he was headed. She tensed when she saw a group of older boys bullying a blonde she recognized from school. He was a few months younger than them, and was small for his age. He had been smart enough to skip ahead a grade, so they were in the same class at school.

It was clear what Eren intended to do, and she hurried after him. In the months after she had become his sister, she had noticed that Eren had a tendency to jump into things without thinking, causing trouble when he took on more than he could handle. Which, she was exasperated to say, was most of the time. Unfortunately, she hadn’t quite caught up with him when he confronted the group of boys.

“Leave him alone!” he shouted.

The five boys looked back at him, curious to see who had interrupted them. They looked to be a couple of years older than Eren. One of them had Armin pinned against a wall. “Get lost, kid. This isn’t any of your business,” he said. Armin had his eyes squeezed shut.

“What did he do you, huh?” Eren demanded, ignoring the older boy’s command.

The boy closest to Eren turned and walked toward him, an annoyed look on his face. “He said get lost, brat!” He reached out and pushed the brunette. Eren stumbled backwards before surging forward and jumping on the larger boy, taking him to the ground. The other boys were too shocked to do anything for a few moments as he punched the boy underneath him. The boy holding Armin let go.

Eren stood back up, leaving the older boy groaning on the ground holding his face. Angrily, two of the other boys advanced on him. The one who reached him first pulled his arm back and hit the smaller boy. Eren wobbled backwards, struggling not to fall. The boy went to hit him again, but was stopped when Mikasa tackled him.

She rolled off of him and was up again in just another moment. She kicked the second boy in the stomach, sending him to his knees moaning. “Anybody else?” she questioned, taking a fighter’s stance.

The last two boys shook their heads vehemently. The girl was small, but it was obvious that she knew how to fight. They helped their three friends off the ground before running away from the scene.

Eren glared after them until he couldn’t see them anymore. Then he turned to the blonde kid still leaning against the wall. “Are you alright?”

The blonde nodded, watching them warily.

“I’m Eren,” he continued. “And this is Mikasa. She’s my sister.”

Mikasa spoke up then. “You’re Armin, right? We’re in the same class at school.”

He nodded again.

“Do you wanna come play with us? We were about to get on the swings.”

Armin brightened up. “Sure!” he chirped.

Eren whooped once and began running back they way they came.

Later, they learned that Armin lived just one street over from them. And just like that, they became an inseparable trio, and had managed to stay in the same class together through the rest of their elementary and middle school years. Eren hoped that they could be in the same class once again their freshman year of high school. 

After some searching, he found his friend by the auditorium, looking into the crowd. “Hey, Armin!” he waved as he jogged up to the blonde. He grinned when he saw the smaller boy look towards him.

“Hey, Eren,” Armin smiled at him when he came to a stop in front of him. Then he frowned. “You’re almost late! The entrance ceremony is going to start soon. We have to go sit down now.” He grabbed the brunette’s hand and pulled him into the building. It was already pretty crowded inside, making it harder to navigate around the groups of students and teachers.

They sat down near the front, giving them a clear view of the podium on the stage. The seats around them filled quickly. Eren turned to Armin. “Did you see what class we’re in? Are we together this year?”

He nodded. “We’re in class 1-C.”

“Cool.” Eren grinned.

Just then, the principal began the ceremony. Eren’s attention strayed from the middle-aged man speaking into the mic, and he observed the students seated in front of him. He noticed some people he knew from middle school, but most of them were new faces. He grimaced when he recognized Jean’s horseface a few seats away.

Armin elbowed him in the side. “Mikasa’s about to speak,” he hissed when Eren shot him a hurt look.

Eren turned his attention back to the stage, where his sister was walking to the podium. She appeared very calm, but he knew how nervous she’d been for the past few weeks. Despite his reluctance to hear the same speech four times, he was proud of her for getting the highest score in the entrance exam.

The ceremony ended quickly after Mikasa finished her speech, and the two boys hurried to meet her.

“You were so good, Mika.”

“That was great, Mikasa!”

She smiled as they praised her. She tugged her scarf over her mouth self-consciously. “Thanks, guys. Let’s get to class.”

They agreed and walked together. It was easy to find their classroom, since it was on the first floor of the school building. They sat together to wait for their homeroom teacher to arrive.


End file.
